Support for Configurable Structures and Platform-Based Products
Configurable product structures and variant creation are implemented in Windchill using configurable products and configurable modules, options and choices, and advanced selection logic. Additional Platform Structure features enable more efficient management of platform-based products across the enterprise for design and manufacturing.
Enabling Functionality for Configurable Product Structures
By default, the Configurable Modules Support preference is set to no. You need to set it to yes so you can use the Options and Variants functionality. This preference can be changed by:
• The Site administrator for the entire site
• The Organization administrator for the entire organization
• The Product Manager for a product container
• The Library Manager for a library container
The Configurable Module Support preference is inherited from a higher-level container, and it can be locked at a container level or overwritten at a lower container level.
If the Configurable Module Support preference is set to no, configurable products, configurable modules, and option assignments are not supported, and the Option Filter is not available for filtering product structures.
Accessing Configurable Product Structure Functionality
A Product Manager or an Option Manager with access to Option Pool can create and manage options, choices, include rules, exclude rules, enable rules, and option sets. Platform structures provides the following expanded capabilities:
• Conditional rules: Enhanced rules allowing the use of the compound IF and THEN statements to specify when certain option choices can be included, enabled, required, or disabled based on the choice selections that you specify when filtering an overloaded product structure. For information, see
Conditional Rules.
• Local and Global rule effectivity management: You can revise global and local rules. You can also manage local rules independently of the Option Set, so the option set does not get iterated when a local rule is revised. For more information, see
Revising Local Rules.
• Options and choices with numeric values: Adding numeric values to choices enables you to more efficiently read, create, and maintain complex rules and assigned expressions by capturing the intent of the rule. With these enhancements, you can use numeric values for choices and operators such as “>”, “<”, “>=”, “<=” to simplify rule writing.
• Expression aliases: Reusable segments of logic. Typically, there are some common logic definitions that are reused in many places of the configuration of product. When distributing responsibility for writing assigned expressions to large teams, it is important for these expressions to be simple to read and write. You can capture these common definitions more easily as aliases, and manage them globally for the product. For more information, see
Working with Aliases.
Spreadsheet-based Module Variant Creation and Management: Creating and maintaining multiple module variants can be cumbersome. With the spreadsheet import and export capabilities, designers can easily create the Bill of Materials (BOM) for one or more module variants and load it into the system. For more information, see
BOM Table Worksheets.
Standard team memberships provide product members with Read access to options and choices, the ability to filter a configurable structure, create and manage variant specifications, and variant generation. By default, product members cannot create, edit, or delete options and options sets. With the appropriate license entitlement, these users can define basic, dependent expressions. Platform structures provides the following expanded capabilities:
• Advanced expressions: You can assign more complex expressions to parts, part usage links, and occurrences to increase the control and flexibility of these selections. The advanced expressions can use several subexpressions and functions to describe more than one condition when a module variant can be included in the product structure. For more information, see
Defining Advanced Expressions. Advanced expressions are evaluated during the filtering of the product structure to determine the applicability of module variants. For information on filtering using expressions, see
Evaluating Expressions During the Option Filtering.
• Independent Basic or Advanced Expression: Assigned expressions can be managed independently of the item to which they are assigned (a part, part usage link, or occurrence). This enables you to modify or revise expressions without iterating the object to which is assigned. For more information, see
Independent Assigned Expressions.
• Expanded Product Structure Filtering Flexibility: Sometimes it is difficult to find the assigned expressions that are incompletely described in the configurable structure. With a new filter type, Standard and Alternate filter, you can select Alternate filter to view incompletely defined logic in the configurable structure. For more information, see
Standard and Alternate Option Filter. You can also customize the out-of-the-box methods by defining your own logic for filtering the structure. For more information, see
Configuring Standard and Alternate Behaviors.
• Use of date effectivity in Option Filter Configuration Specification: All users have the ability to set the Option Filter configuration specification using the latest configuration specification. The ability to use other forms of configuration specifications is available only with Platform Structures.
• Spreadsheet-based Module Variant Creation and Management: Creating and maintaining multiple module variants can be cumbersome. With the spreadsheet import and export capabilities, designers can easily create the Bill of Materials for one or more module variants and load it into the system. For more information, see
Loading Data for Product Families and Options and Variants.